Friday, December 12, 2014

Long Story Short

My students make me laugh!

Every Monday they have to write "The Weekend News" which is a summary of their weekend for their journals. The first photo depicts a sample of writing from one my girls about her weekend--lots of great detail (there is no length requirement for this assignment). The photo is page 2 of the 3 pages she handed in--all typed in her gmail account! The next photo is the paper submitted by one of my boys...something about putting up a Christmas tree...as if to say, "That's all I got, Mrs. Kyburz." Yep. The contrast is hilarious to me!

My students this year have had a habit of acting out everything we do after we do it. We learned about the French and Indian War, I sent them to recess, and boom, they come back happily announcing that during recess they made up a SKIT about the French and Indian War and may we PLEASE perform it for you??? I did chuckle when the British General yelled at a Patriot stating, "We're getting really tired of cleaning up your messes!" Well, on Tuesday we went to the kiva in the library where the librian showed clips from a movie called CHRISTMAS ORANGES. It's about a girl in an orphanage with a cruel headmaster who punishes too much over little things, so of course, she's denied her Christmas Orange (and she's never tasted one) and sent to bed. Well, all of the other kids in the orphanage save back a slice of orange, put the slices together to look like an orange and tie it up in a handkerchief to give to the girl who missed out on the festivities. In the movie, the kids are all grinning ear to ear and encouraging the poor girl to smell it when she opens it!

After library we went to lunch and after lunch, boom, there's a suspicious little package tied up in a bandana on my desk...yep...I got my very own Christmas orange thanks to the cafeteria. The kids were grinning ear to ear and saying, "SMELL it! It smells so, SO good!!!" I unwrapped it (after photographing it) and exclaimed appropriately over it and heard someone say, "So many kids gave a piece of theirs, even kids not from our class!" Oh boy.

The next day...I asked for a couple of volunteers to deliver a Christmas gift anonymously to another teacher in the school because we teachers are doing Secret Santa with each other this week and I hadn't delivered my gift for the day before school started. The kids asked all sorts of questions about this Secret Santa thing so I briefly explained how it worked. Well, I came back from lunch and there by my classroom door was a baggie with several pieces of individually wrapped candy and a note addressed to me saying, "Dear Mrs. Kyburz, Merry Christmas! From: Your Secret Santa" I really loved the two miniature candy canes taped together to look like a heart.

Such great people I work with on a daily basis. They bring a lot of joy to me. I wonder if I can inspire them to act out fractions after I present those sorts of lessons...